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***Official*** India in England

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Pup Clarke

Cricketer Of The Year
Pretty good season at Worcestershire (26 @ 29.46 including an 8 for). Certainly didn't do anything wrong in his one test match 4 years ago. Wouldn't be a million miles away me thinks.
 
Richard

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
Pup Clarke said:
Pretty good season at Worcestershire (26 @ 29.46 including an 8 for). Certainly didn't do anything wrong in his one test match 4 years ago. Wouldn't be a million miles away me thinks.
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Didn't anything wrong? Debatable. Bowled OK for a Test debut, sure, but for a surface as helpful as that one was, it was hardly The Ritz.

In any case, I'd imagine his ODI awfulness will be held against him, TBH, wrong though that may be. He'd have to be taking wickets at 15s and 16s to be in with a real shout, I reckon.
 
P

Pup Clarke

Cricketer Of The Year
FFS there's got to be someone in England who can bat at 8 and who is a good bowler.

There is Glen Chapple y'know...perfect.:)
 
BoyBrumby

BoyBrumby

Englishman
Prince EWS said:
You said can though, not does. Flintoff can bat at 8 - most probably better than anyone else currently doing so in test cricket - and should IMO.
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Bit of a catch 22 with Fred's batting position & the make up of our test team, really. I'm inclined to agree with the consenus that 6 is now too high for him, but if he plays as part of a four-man attack his ankle is likely to fall off.

I suppose one option would be to play Prior @ 6 (he's looked capable so far for me, although early days & the oppo not the best, frankly) with Fred below him at the expense of a batsman, but that would still leave us with the knotty "8" issue. Hmm...
 
Prince EWS

Prince EWS

Global Moderator
BoyBrumby said:
Bit of a catch 22 with Fred's batting position & the make up of our test team, really. I'm inclined to agree with the consenus that 6 is now too high for him, but if he plays as part of a four-man attack his ankle is likely to fall off.
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With all due respect to Flintoff's past batting exploits, if he can't cope with the rigours of bowling his full allotment, he simply shouldn't be in the team, IMO. His batting is good enough for 7 - but that only works if your keeper's batting is good enough for 6 and you have a solid #8 as well - neither of which are true.

It's pretty simply with Flintoff for mine - he doesn't play until he's fit enough to play as a bowler. Picking someone as a bowler and then having to pick yet another bowler because of his injury concerns seems ludicrous to me.
 
BoyBrumby

BoyBrumby

Englishman
Prince EWS said:
With all due respect to Flintoff's past batting exploits, if he can't cope with the rigours of bowling his full allotment, he simply shouldn't be in the team, IMO. His batting is good enough for 7 - but that only works if your keeper's batting is good enough for 6 and you have a solid #8 as well - neither of which are true.

It's pretty simply with Flintoff for mine - he doesn't play until he's fit enough to play as a bowler. Picking someone as a bowler and then having to pick yet another bowler because of his injury concerns seems ludicrous to me.
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It's not like the English county scene is crawling with test-class strike bowlers, so we're not exactly spoilt for choice.

Simple fact is Fred is our best seamer by some way, buggered ankle or not. Sad to say but, given the frequency of its reoccurance, his ankle issue looks chronic & successful management of it is the best we can realistically hope for.

It's also a little early in the piece to say that Prior's not up to bating at six too IMHO. From the evidence we've seen so far it looks as if he may well be. Obviously he needs to be tested against a better bowling attack, but he couldn't really have done more (with the bat) so far.
 
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